A DOCUMENTARY directed by a Bournemouth University academic, with students and alumni among the film crew, has made the longlist for the Oscars.

Indian Space Dreams has been put forward for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category for the 93rd Academy Awards, which will take place on April 25.

The documentary follows a team of scientists in Mumbai as they prepare to launch the country’s first astronomical satellite. It was the first time a film crew had been granted access to film behind the scenes of an Indian space mission.

The film was directed and produced by Dr Sue Sudbury, a documentary filmmaker and Principal Academic in Media Production at BU.

Seventeen BU students and alumni were among the film crew, working in a range of roles including Digital Video (DV) Director, Additional Camera, Edit Assistants and Translators.

Dr Sudbury said: "We’re thrilled that our film has reached the Academy Awards 2021 long list for Best Documentary Feature. It is a fantastic validation to all the team, including BU students, who worked so hard on it."

The documentary was released in December 2019 and the one-hour television version has been screened in 92 different countries through distributor TVF International.

The film has won Best Feature Documentary and the Rafferty Jackson Best Storytelling Awards at the Los Angeles Raw Science Film Festival, though the theatrical runs, scheduled for Los Angeles and New York, had to be postponed because of Covid-19. Simultaneous two-week theatrical runs are also planned in major US cities this summer, dependent on Covid-19.

Dr Sudbury made the film through her production company, Sequoia Films, with funding from Haviland Digital and the MEDIA and Worldview Development Funds. Oscar-nominated production company, Spring Films, were co-producers.